Case Study : How Keyword Intent Improved SEO & Google Ads Performance of Recruitment Company

About the Author

His name is Shiva Charan, and he has 10 years of experience in Google AdWords, Seo, and digital marketing. He wrote this article based on his own experience at his former job and how he turned it around to get more organic Google traffic.

A recruitment company (we are not disclosing the name because of security compliance) experienced a noticeable decline in organic traffic and website performance after a major website revamp.

At the same time, its paid search campaigns were attracting irrelevant searches, limiting conversion efficiency and increasing wasted ad spend.

The objective was clear:

• Recover lost SEO performance
• Improve website visibility and click-through rates
• Rebuild the Google Ads keyword strategy
• Reduce irrelevant traffic
• Increase qualified candidate conversions
• Improve overall campaign efficiency

To find ranking losses, technical gaps, and quick optimization chances, we carried out a thorough SEO performance evaluation utilizing SEMrush and Screaming Frog.

1. We concentrated first on high-impact, low-effort opportunities that could help regain visibility more quickly rather than trying to completely revamp the SEO approach at once. Rather than concentrating on a single type of material, we concentrated on the keywords that were trending down in the search console, rectified the problems that caused it to do so, and then eliminated the unrelated content.
2. Then, we concentrated on whether they were dropped for natural reasons, such as seasonal searches like competitive exams, which typically take place in May and July. We disregarded those and looked for any technical issues with other blogs to see if they were displaying correctly to users, checked page speed, etc., and fixed the problems. By optimizing the content, I was able to move pages that were ranked between 5 and 10 to rank 1-2. After resolving all of this, we concentrated on creating fresh material using the techniques listed below.

3. Strategies such as Semrush’s use of top competitor analysis to determine which pages are receiving traffic and what keywords are driving it were examined, and content was created around them.
4. Examined the best-performing pages of rivals and developed a growth plan around them.
5. Searched Google Trends for subjects that were popular in certain businesses and created content around them.

• Identifying pages that lost rankings after the website revamp
• Finding keywords with strong recovery potential
• Improving search snippets and CTR opportunities
• Reviewing technical and on-page SEO issues
• Identifying website speed and performance improvements
• Prioritising pages capable of generating immediate traffic gains

This helped establish a clearer roadmap for recovering organic visibility.

For the recruitment candidate acquisition campaign, we rebuilt the search strategy around stronger keyword intent.

The campaign structure was refined to attract candidates actively searching for relevant employment opportunities while reducing irrelevant traffic.

Key improvements included:

• Rebuilding the keyword targeting strategy
• Grouping keywords based on search intent
• Introducing tighter negative keyword lists
• Filtering irrelevant and low-quality search queries
• Improving ad relevance
• Monitoring search terms continuously
• Optimising campaigns toward conversion performance rather than traffic volume

£10,173
Google Ads Spend

899
Total Conversions

7.92%
Overall Account Conversion Rate

The optimisation resulted in significant improvements across key campaign metrics.

Conversion Rate
Increased from 7.18% to 9.21%

Conversions
Increased from 272 to 403

Click-Through Rate
Increased from 1.67% to 5.75%

By combining SEO recovery work with a more disciplined Google Ads strategy, the campaign improved both visibility and acquisition efficiency.

The stronger keyword structure and negative keyword strategy helped reduce irrelevant traffic, while SEO optimisation helped recover opportunities lost following the website redesign.

Most importantly, the campaign demonstrated that increasing advertising spend alone was not necessary to generate stronger results.

Better targeting, stronger search intent, continuous optimisation, and cleaner campaign structure contributed to higher conversion volumes and a stronger conversion rate.

The project successfully transformed an underperforming post-revamp search presence into a stronger acquisition engine, generating 899 conversions from £10,173 in Google Ads spend, while delivering significant year-on-year improvements in CTR, conversion volume, and conversion rate.

Industry: Recruitment & Staffing
Services: Google Ads, Search Marketing, SEO Recovery, SEMrush Analysis, Keyword Strategy, Conversion Optimisation